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Fire has become another visitor in the Canadian province of Quebec. First was last year at Lac-Megantic when flames burst out from a train derailment.

Now, last night, it hit the quaint town of L’Isle-Verte,Quebec ( L’Isle-Verte is French for Green Island) in a 4-story seniors home which opened in 1997.Apparently, the home from initial reports had stated, that water sprinklers weren’t fully installed there due to a regulation that the building wasn’t more than 4 stories high. The home was built mainly of wood which I personally feel wasn’t a good insulator for Canadian winters.

Ongoing search,rescue and investigations are still continued amidst difficulties in going through the debris,smoke and ice. The stark reality is that as of the present moment, 5 people had died, 30 are missing and 20 are injured from the fire.

Considering that the residents are seniors,majority of whom have disability problems and Alzheimer’s dementia, it’s heartwrenching to think of how they were able to escape if they were ever lucky,from such a frightening inferno. I could just imagine how their loved ones and friends are feeling right now when they thought that having these folks in such a home would keep them safe when in fact, it ended this way.

The ongoing debate of strict fire safety regulations and fault-finding will definitely ensue but these will not bring back the dead nor completely heal those traumatized from the fire.

This is a preventable situation but alas, we all learn from hindsight. I just hope that this unfortunate situation will be rectified for everyone’s sake irregardless of whose heads will roll in the process.

My thoughts and prayers are with the injured,deceased and their respective loved ones/friends. In a town with a population of 1400 where everybody knows everybody,the emotional pain is unfathomable.

In a span of just a few weeks, there has been repetitive incidents of gun violence like 2 school shootings–one in Boulder area in Colorado and another one in Roswell area in New Mexico; then there’s a movie theater shootout in Florida and inside a supermarket in Indiana.

Looks like some folks are getting too trigger-happy and dealing with stress by just using their guns.Life is really starting to get cheap and dispensable.

Too sad indeed!

The ongoing debates on both gun violence,gun rights and mental health eligibility to handle a gun will still go on but STILL no solution in the nearest possible horizon.

I had mentioned in a previous blog dated 1-12-2013 about the Canadian Arctic Blast Experience. With these past few weeks,especially this week, not only is Canada experiencing very extreme freezing weather but also in the United States and other parts of the world.

Ice,snow,wind chills,freezing rain,polar vortex,constant struggles in dealing with it in a regular basis, travel delays and cancellations, power outages,frostbite, frozen pipe explosions,etc.,etc.

It makes me think that Mother Nature is trying to tell us something about global warming.

Preparing and dealing with the big chill is no different from preparing for a Doomsday scenario in my opinion. Dressing warm,getting edible and non-perishable food items, flashlights,generators,etc.

There’s a Canadian expression here which goes like this “Is it cold enough for you?’ as a conversation starter. Canadians take great pride in their winters and as to how to deal with them as a badge of honor.

I really don’t know if I would like to say such an expression with the current chill we’re all experiencing right now. It might rub the wrong way to a suffering listener.

Keep warm anyway! Be careful of the ice. It’s challenging to deal with it. I’d rather deal with nice,fluffy snow even if it’s more than 6 feet because you can navigate around it. The chances of falling down into the snow wouldn’t result in bone fractures unlike if you slip and fall into ice.